When Will You Retire?
By Barbara Morris, R. Ph.
In a recent “Dear Abby” column, a woman in her mid sixties who loves working full time was annoyed by the “When are you going to retire?” question from coworkers and nosy friends. She asked Abby how to deal politely with the inquisition.
I have been asked the same question countless times. I worked as a pharmacist until age 76 and loved every minute of it. When asked "When are you going to retire?" my answer was always the same: "Never." Although I no longer work as a pharmacist I have not retired but have moved on to other challenging work that promotes growth and productivity.
I have been able to avoid traditional decline because I have avoided the traditional senior culture. I do not have retired senior friends; I do not live in a “seniors only” community; I do not belong to senior organizations; I do not participate in senior activities. My friends and associates, even though some are “retired” engage in work that keeps them productive and of value to others.
People tell their doctor and pharmacist everything, and what I was told and what I observed over many years made me realize that for many, the retired senior culture isn’t what it’s supposed to be. When I got into my seventies I began to pay close attention to seniors and how they live. I saw way too much boredom, loneliness, poor health, serious financial problems and a yearning for a time when they looked and felt better and had a purpose in life. I realized that I was blessed beyond measure to be working. I used to say to myself, "There but for the grace of God go I."
The current economic crisis will force many would be retirees to work longer (if they are lucky enough to still have a job). Instead of seeing continued productivity as a punishment it should be embraced as a gift that will help keep a strong mind and a body.
You have undoubtedly seen healthy friends or relatives retire and then quickly decline. Some retirees weather the cessation of challenge very well but many do not. Too often those who spent their adult lives at mentally demanding work suffer decline most rapidly. When you’ve been accustomed to daily structure and responsibility it can be devastating to enter retirement without a plan for how you want to live the rest of your life.
Retirement is not ordained by God; it is a creation of the Great Depression years when people didn't live much beyond age sixty-five. It may have made sense then but with a longer lifespan today, for many it makes no sense at all.
For healthy individuals traditional retirement has become an anachronism and those pioneering individuals who are healthy enough to want to work should be applauded, encouraged, and looked to as role models for a more rewarding way to live in the years earmarked for retirement.
But here’s the thing: Even if you are determined not to follow the lemmings over the cliff into do-nothing retirement, it’s difficult not to become tainted by the culture. Consider this: as you are getting ready to enter retirement you are targeted by what I call the senior culture vultures: Investment gurus, insurance salesmen, real estate agents (you do want to live in a retirement community with other old people, don’t you?), travel agents and anti aging experts – all eager to take your money and to remind you, even if indirectly, that you are becoming a “senior.”
It’s difficult to escape. You are made aware of and pressured (however subtly) into buying stuff you probably don’t really need or want. But sooner or later you cave in to the pressure and there you are knee deep in the quicksand of retirement-land.
How many people who are still working do you think are aware of the pressure to buy senior products and services once they retire? Probably not one in a million. The purveyors of senior “needs” know you are clueless, and not only that, they know who you are, how much money you have, and they’ve got their marketing guns trained on you because jobs that provide senior services are at stake.
Your age isn’t a secret anymore. How else do you think AARP knows to send you an invitation to join when you are a mere kid of fifty? Your best intentions to avoid the lures and pitfalls of senior culture can be shot down very quickly.
If you are still working, thank God for the gift. If you don’t like what you are doing, find a way to do what you may have been aching to do all your life. There is something better awaiting you if you are willing to take control of your life and not mindlessly do what tradition dictates. I promise – growth and balanced lifelong productivity, not decline oriented retirement is your key to staying ageless, of value to self and others. But you get just one chance. Once in the clutches of decline it takes a miracle to reverse course and I’ve not seen it happen yet.
On a positive note, my role model of the year is Gertrude Boyle, 85, Chairman of the Board of Columbia Sportswear in Portland, Oregon.
Source: August, 2009 Put Old on Hold Newsletter
Barbara Morris — Image F/X Publications
Barbara@PutOldOnHold.com
760-480-2710
© 2009 – Image F/X Publications, All rights reserved
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